Israel Swaps Prisoners for Soldiers’ Bodies

Monday

Jun 30, 2008 at 4:52 AM

After a wrenching national debate, the Israeli cabinet voted to trade a Lebanese murderer for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s government voted Sunday to trade one of the most notorious convicts in its prisons, a Lebanese murderer, for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers whose cross-border capture led to and partly motivated its monthlong war with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah in summer 2006.

After a wrenching national debate that drove hesitant officials, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, to accept the deal, the cabinet voted 22 to 3 to trade the prisoner, Samir Kuntar, along with four other Lebanese, for Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the two Israeli soldiers.

“Despite all hesitations, after weighing the pros and the cons, I support the agreement,” Mr. Olmert was quoted by his spokesman as telling his cabinet at the start of the meeting. “Our initial theory was that the soldiers were alive.” But, he said, “now we know with certainty there is no chance that that is the case.”

The spokesman added that Mr. Olmert said, “There will be much sadness in Israel, much humiliation considering the celebrations that will be held on the other side.”

Indeed, within minutes of the decision, Al Manar, the Hezbollah television station, hailed it as evidence of the group’s power. “What happened in the prisoner issue is proof that the word of the resistance is the most faithful, strongest and supreme,” Hezbollah’s executive council chief, Hashem Safieddine, was quoted as saying.

The July 12, 2006, raid by Hezbollah into Israel that captured the two soldiers was aimed at seizing bargaining chips for the group’s effort to free Mr. Kuntar and several other Lebanese.

Mr. Kuntar was part of a cell that in 1979 raided the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, fatally shooting a civilian, Danny Haran, while his daughter Einat, 4, watched, then smashing the girl’s head, killing her as well. Mr. Haran’s wife, Smadar, hid with their 2-year-old daughter, accidentally suffocating her in an effort to stop her from crying out.

Mr. Kuntar has said he regrets nothing, and he will receive a hero’s welcome when he returns, part of the cause for hesitation in Israel’s security establishment, with many of its members recommending the deal’s rejection. But the Goldwasser and Regev families mounted an effective campaign supported by vast numbers of Israelis who wanted to know that if their children fell in battle, the state would spare nothing to gain their return.

Indeed, Israel has a tradition of doing all it can to get back its captured soldiers. But as the conviction grew here that the two men were dead, opposition to the deal grew, especially since it involved the release of Mr. Kuntar.

In an interview as he sat outside the prime minister’s office waiting for the decision, Shlomo Goldwasser, father of the captured soldier, said that he had fought to push the deal through because, without proof, he could not be sure if his son was dead; Mr. Olmert’s assertion, he said, was based on supposition. “We want to finish this for good or for bad,” he said. “When children ask their parents what will happen if they are taken prisoner in a war, we need to be able to answer clearly. This value is more important than Kuntar.”

The deal announced on Sunday had several elements. It will give back to Lebanon dozens of infiltrators’ bodies, including those of eight members of Hezbollah. Israel will also give to the United Nations secretary general information on four Iranian diplomats who disappeared in Lebanon. Israel is also due to receive a report on Ron Arad, an airman missing in Lebanon for two decades. Once the deal has gone through, the cabinet statement said, Israel will also release Palestinian prisoners at its discretion.

This last point was clearly a delicate one, since Israel sought to avoid Hezbollah’s taking credit for the release of any Palestinian prisoners. Hezbollah seized the two Israeli soldiers shortly after the Palestinian group Hamas captured an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in southern Israel, and it was the one-two punch of such actions that partly pushed Mr. Olmert to order such a fierce response against Hezbollah in 2006.

Both Hezbollah and Hamas are armed and supported by Iran, which has repeatedly urged that Israel be forced out of existence.

Nevertheless, apart from the prisoner deal with Hezbollah, negotiated through a German mediator, Israel also agreed with Hamas on a six-month truce that started June 19. The deal, mediated by Egypt, has been violated by dissident Palestinian groups that have fired rockets or mortar shells at Israel.

But so far, both sides seem committed to the truce, which involves Israel opening border crossings and reducing its siege of Gaza. On Sunday, about a third more goods were let through than had previously been, according to Hamas officials in Gaza. The goods included animal feed, diesel fuel, fruit, vegetables and frozen meat.

The acting Hamas interior minister, Said Siam, said in an interview that he had formed an emergency group to monitor truce violations by various factions. Clerics associated with Hamas spoke at Friday Prayer in favor of the truce, saying it was in the interest of the people that it not be violated.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said there had not been progress on the release of Corporal Shalit, who is known to be alive and whom Israel wants desperately to bring home. Mr. Abu Zuhri said Hamas was demanding 1,000 prisoners in return for Corporal Shalit, 450 of them serving life sentences in Israeli prisons. Israel has apparently objected to releasing some of them, and the negotiations continue.

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